Scribe Video Center

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Scribe Video Center

Scribe provides training in all aspects of film, video and audio production.

12/05/2025

Join us on December 12 at 7PM for a powerful screening of “Searching for the Songs of Wanaragua”, the new short film by Philly filmmaker Eli LaBan 📽️✨

🎞️ in partnership with Big Picture Alliance and Indigenous Peoples’ Day (IPD) Philly

Travel with Cesar Vargas, a Garifuna language teacher and cultural keeper from Honduras, as he and LaBan document and translate traditional Wanaragua songs— a vital part of Garifuna heritage and a living link in the fight to keep the endangered Afro-Indigenous culture alive. 🎶🌍

After the film, stay for a community conversation with the filmmakers, hosted by Gianna Brown (BPA), connecting Garifuna storytelling to Philadelphia’s own Indigenous and Afro-diasporic communities.

📽️ “Searching for the Songs of Wanaragua” Film Screening + Filmmaker Q&A
🗓️ Friday, December 12, 7PM
📍 Scribe Video Center, 3908 Lancaster Ave
🎟️ $5 general, $3 for Scribe members

Space is limited - register now at SCRIBE.ORG/LABAN or via the link in bio 🔗

12/02/2025

This Giving Tuesday, invest in community storytelling in Philadelphia! 🎬✨

Over four decades ago, Scribe started in a small room with borrowed equipment and a belief that everyday people deserve access to the tools of media-making. Today, we continue that mission by supporting youth filmmakers, neighborhood historians, elders, organizers, and storytellers across our city.

Help us reach our $50,000 year-end goal and make 2026 another year of powerful, community-rooted media.

🔗 Donate today at scribe.org/annual-appeal or via the link in our bio.

11/29/2025

In recognition of World Aids Day, join us for a screening of the innovative documentary, “I Was Born This Way” on Monday, Dec 1 at Scribe!

🌈 “I Was Born This Way”
by Sam Pollard and Daniel Junge
(USA, 2025, 100 min)

When Archbishop Carl Bean sang the 1977 disco hit and gay anthem “I Was Born This Way,” it was just the start of his mission to create positive change in the world. He went on to found the Minority AIDS Project and the world’s first LGBTQ+ church for people of color.

➕ post-screening Q&A with the filmmakers!

Daniel Junge is an Oscar and Emmy-winning documentary filmmaker, whose films include Saving Face, Being Eve, They Killed Sister Dorothy, and A Lego Brickumentary.

Sam Pollard is an accomplished feature film and television editor, and documentary producer/director. Pollard has edited several Spike Lee films: Mo’ Better Blues, Jungle Fever, Girl 6, Clockers, and Bamboozled. He has also produced and directed Max Roach: The Drum Also Waltzes, MLK/FBI, Two Trains Running and co- produced Four Little Girls and When the Levees Broke.

🎟️ $5, $3 for Scribe members
🔗 scribe.org/bornthisway or visit the link in bio!

11/10/2025

Enjoy this poetic teaser for THIS FRIDAY’s film, “a_blurred_fluxx_00.avi” by .r. We are delighted to have them joining us for a post-screening discussion as well! 📹🎞️🌈✨

🗓️Friday, Nov 14 @ 7pm
📍Scribe Video Center

Tickets are $5, $3 for Scribe members. Register today at scribe.org/blurred 🔗or via the link in our bio!

11/06/2025

Join us this month at Scribe for a special two-night collaboration with Third World Newsreel exploring the intersections of African spirituality, ritual, and film.

African Spiritualities - November 20 & 21
Two nights of film & community conversations with the filmmaker

🌍 Thursday, Nov 20:
"AI: African Intelligence" by Manthia Diawara
(Senegal, 2023, 110 min)
This essay film explores the contact zones between African rituals of possession among traditional fishing villages of the Atlantic coast of Senegal and the emergence of new technology frontiers known as artificial intelligence. Considering the confluence of tradition and modernity, Diawara questions how we could move from toward a more humane and spiritual control of algorithms. Could Africa be the context of the emergence of such improbable algorithms?

🥁 Friday, Nov 21:
"Voices of the Gods" by Al Santana
(USA, 1985, 60 min)
This documentary captures the rich legacy of ancient African religions
practiced in the United States. It provides viewers with rare insight into
the practices and beliefs of the Akan and Yoruba religions–their
cosmologies, their use of music, dance and medicine in various
ceremonies and rituals–and the influences of these religions in secular African-American culture and mainstream American society.

📍Scribe Video Center
🗓️ Nov 20 & 21
🔗 Link in bio to register or visit SCRIBE.ORG/SCREENINGS

Stills 1-3: "AI: African Intelligence"
Stills 4-7: "Voices of the Gods"

11/04/2025

Interested in developing the skills to plan, produce, and edit your own documentary?

🌟Then apply for Scribe’s Film Scholars program, a series of courses designed to guide emerging documentary filmmakers from conceptualization through completion of their projects.

Whether you’re an artist, activist, or storyteller, this program gives you:
✨ Professional instruction and creative guidance
🤝 A supportive cohort of fellow filmmakers
💻 Access to Scribe’s resources and discounted workshops

To apply, you’ll need to:
1️⃣ Be a Scribe member (memberships start at just $35/year!)
2️⃣ Submit an application
3️⃣ Commit to all four courses: Blueprint for Documentaries, Production Management, 14-Week Production Workshop, and Editing in Adobe Premiere Pro.

🎥 Limited to 12 participants — join a competitive, community-centered program dedicated to growing diversity in Philly’s media scene.

💰 Program cost: $500 (split into two payments)
🎓 Scholarships available for eligible applicants.

👉 Learn more + apply today at SCRIBE.ORG/FILM-SCHOLARS or hit the link in bio!

💬 Got questions? Join our Virtual Info Session on Nov 6 at 5PM — email [email protected] to RSVP.

11/03/2025

We invite you to experience “a_blurred_fluxx_00.avi”, a boundary-pushing experimental documentary by multidisciplinary artist .r.

🗓️ Friday, Nov 14 @ 7 PM
📍 Scribe Video Center
🎟️ $5, $3 for Scribe members → scribe.org/blurred

🏆 Screened at London Breeze, Ann Arbor, and Q***r Lisboa — now showing at Scribe Video Center in West Philly.

Co-sponsored by Swarthmore College + + the Center for Experimental Ethnography.

At just 23, Osadolor has developed a deeply distinctive artistic practice grounded in Lo-Fi and D-I-Y aesthetics. Their film, “a_blurred_fluxx_00.avi”, transforms memory and lived experience into a dynamic visual archive that celebrates Blackqueer joy, intimacy, and the ongoing process of self-becoming. Through fragmented soundscapes and layered conversations, the film highlights the beauty, complexity, and opacity of Blackqueer life.

The film builds upon Osadolor’s award-winning Stanford thesis, which argues that Lo-Fi and D-I-Y film aesthetics act as “Afropresentist tools” — empowering Blackqueer creators to reimagine their relationships with identity, memory, and possibility.

***rArt ***rPhilly

10/14/2025

Two weeks ago we screened our last film of the Summer Season — THE FIVE DEMANDS, co-directed by the founders of Jezebel Productions, Greta Schiller and Andrea Weiss.

Filmmaker Andrea Weiss and film participant, Rosalind McLymont, joined us for a post-screening discussion. THE FIVE DEMANDS follows a small group of Black and Puerto Rican students in April 1969 as they shut down the City College of New York in Harlem. The strike soon turned into an uprising, leading to an extended campus occupation, canceled classes, student arrests, and the college president’s resignation.

Missed this screening? Check out what’s next for the Fall/Winter Season, officially beginning mid-November!

09/30/2025

Films Shaped by a City 🥹🎨✨

We’re on a mural celebrating some of the key films and film-related organizations that have impacted filmmaking in Philly!

🗓️ Join us for a Mural Dedication Event on Friday, October 3rd from 1-3 PM behind the Film Society Center at 1415 Sansom St.

09/25/2025

Scribe’s BODY OF WORK screening series explores the career of media-makers who have had a significant impact on the visual and aural culture of Philadelphia.

This season we welcomed filmmaker, educator and activist Tony Heriza () for two evenings of films and discussions. We are thrilled to report that the screenings brought capacity audiences on both Thursday, September 18th, and Friday, September 19th. We extend a heart-felt thank you to all that came out to Lancaster Avenue for the screenings and discussions with Heriza and collaborators.

TOMORROW, September 26th, join us for our last screening of the summer season — THE FIVE DEMANDS (), with filmmaker Andrea Weiss and film participant Rosalind McLymont in attendance.

Photos by James Izlar.

09/22/2025

In April 1969, a small group of Black and Puerto Rican students shut down the City College of New York, an elite public university located right in the heart of Harlem.

Join us this FRIDAY, September 26, at 7PM for our last screening of the season!

Through archival footage and present-day interviews, THE FIVE DEMANDS is the riveting story of a student strike fueled by the revolutionary fervor sweeping the United States at the time. The strike soon turned into an uprising, leading to an extended campus occupation, canceled classes, student arrests, and the college president’s resignation.

Filmmaker ANDREA WEISS and film participant ROSALIND MCLYMONT will be in attendance for a post-screening discussion.

Visit scribe.org/fivedemands for tickets 🎟️

Address

3908 Lancaster Avenue
Philadelphia, PA
19104

Telephone

(215) 222-4201

Website

http://www.scribe.org/

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Our Story

Scribe Video Center was founded in 1982 as a place where emerging and experienced media artists could gain access to the tools and knowledge of video making and work together in a supportive environment. Scribe provides training in all aspects of film, video and audio production. We also offer classes in computer-based interactive media to individuals and community organizations as well. We give emerging and mid-level video makers the skills and opportunity to use video and film as tools for self-expression and for representing and supporting their communities.